It's been a couple of weeks, and some may claim I am just resurrecting this thread to either pad my post count or simply to maintain a vanity threat that I have heavily contributed to.
Upon reflection, I may have to plead guilty as charged.
That said, I do have a couple of passages that I don't believe have been posted yet; and should be, IMHO.
First up is a commnader in desperate straits, but unyielding in purpose....something a lot of Manty commanders seem to display.
From Shadows of Saganami.
"Good. Terekhov, clear." He looked back at Kobe. "Now record for Admiral Bourmont, please."
"Yes, Sir. Standing by to record."
"Admiral Bourmont," Terekhov faced the visual pickup, his shoulders square, his expression confident, and his voice was icy. "You've called upon my Squadron to surrender. Unfortunately, I can't do that. I came here to do a job—to neutralize the battlecruisers your star nation has been assembling to attack mine. I have not yet completed that task. Two of your battlecruisers remain undamaged, because I refrained from firing upon them in light of their proximity to the civilian portions of your Eroica Station complex. Should any of your armed vessels continue to approach my own command—and we have all of them under surveillance as I speak—I will have no option but to complete my task before withdrawing into hyper before any of your warships]can reach me. I regret to say it, but this will require a bombardment of the battlecruisers in question with contact nuclear warheads, and it will be impossible for me to permit the evacuation of your civilian workforce first."
He heard someone inhale sharply behind him, but his own expression never wavered.
"Should you choose to stand down your warships, and to maintain the present status quo unchanged pending the arrival of the approaching Manticoran relief force, I will be spared that unpleasant necessity. Should you choose not to stand down your warships and maintain the status quo, I will proceed with the bombardment. And under no circumstances will I permit the evacuation of your civilians. The choice is yours, Sir. You have two hours in which to make it and get your decision to me. Terekhov, clear."
He stopped and looked at Kobe. The lieutenant looked severely shaken, but he nodded.
"Good copy, Sir," he said with only the slightest tremor in his voice.
"Very well. Attach the latest tactical summary, including the positions of all of their units we currently have under observation. Then send it, please."
"Aye, aye, Sir."
"Now, Amal," Terekhov said calmly, turning back to Nagchaudhuri, "I believe you have a report to complete. We'll have time for that before Volcano arrives. If you please."
He walked back across the deathly silent bridge to the briefing room, his boot heels sounding clearly on the decksole, and Nagchaudhuri followed after only a brief hesitation. So did Van Dort. He hadn't been invited, but Terekhov wasn't surprised at all to see him after the hatch closed and he turned back to Nagchaudhuri.
"Yes, Bernardus?" he asked in that same, calm voice.
"Aivars, you are bluffing, aren't you? You wouldn't really massacre all those civilians?"
"Bernardus, we can't leave. Monica's squarely in the middle of a hyper-space grav wave. The only two ships we have left who can still generate Warshawski sails are Aegis and Volcano, and they don't begin to have the life-support to take all our survivors with them. And what do you think will happen to my people if I allow them to fall into Monican hands before the relief force gets here?"
Van Dort didn't answer the question. He didn't have to.
"But what if there isn't a relief force?" he asked instead.
"There will be," Terekhov said, with the certitude of God's own prophet. "And when it arrives, my people will be alive to see it."
"But you won't really bombard the battlecruisers?"
"On the contrary, Bernardus," Captain Aivars Alexsovitch Terekhov, Royal Manticoran Navy, said coldly. "If these bastards call my 'bluff,' I will blow their goddamned battlecruisers, and every civilian around them, to hell."
Italics are the authors'; bolding is mine.
As I have said before, that is one scary son-of-a-bitch.
And someone needs to send his wife to Talbott, because if he doesn't get laid soon....
